The Effects of Overpopulation & Consumption Essay

Because the world is ever changing, people do not really stop and look at the things happening around them. People do not usually think about how population is interrelated with consumption and how both affect the world in different ways. A population has the ability to expand infinitely so long as there are enough resources in the environment to sustain it. As long as resources are available, populations can grow to large numbers; however, when resources become scarce, populations can also decrease to small groups. If a population is small, consumption is at a low rate. If a population is large, consumption rates are high. When consumption rates are high resources tend to be depleted faster. Many factors go into determining population size and the consumption rate of a population. Some of the factors include fertility rates, age expectancy, technological advances, immigration, and environmental conditions. Whether this is favorable to the planet or not, consumption is influenced dramatically by population.
The rate of resource production must exceed the rate of population growth, in order for it to continue growing. The question is how do you make that happen when the population is skyrocketing and getting out of control? Our resources cannot naturally keep up with that kind of population growth, which is why advances in technology have modified crops to grow faster in order to keep up with a population’s consumption. Scientists are able to genetically modify food sources such as maize (“Genetically Modified Maize”). Because of this technology, resources can keep up with growing populations and people’s demands are satisfied for the time being (Cantrell). With the increase in production of resources the population can keep inc...

Click the button above to view the complete essay, speech, term paper, or research paper

Consumption Overpopulation and Its Effects on the Environment Essay
- ... The very first idea is the fatalistic belief program that block the actual risk perception. “Humans can not harm the Resource Base” (p.449). The second premise is that the complicity of the concerns regarding the environment blocks the individual awareness of risk. He Concludes that a call for “education and consensus building” (P.472) in raising the environmental risk of awareness. Comparison and Contrast Environmental Environmental risk perceptions also allowing loss aversion, unrealistic optimistic attitude, and heuristic assist in understanding the way humans go towards their resource consumption problem.... [tags: maximum capacity of Earth]:: 7 Works Cited

Overpopulation and Over- Consumption in India Essay
- ... Many countries, especially less developed ones, prioritize males over females because of this reason. Lastly, unwanted pregnancy contributes to overpopulation because of the overall lack of knowledge about sexual relations and birth control in most societies. Consequentially, overpopulation has many negative effects. Most of the critical environmental issues today are a result of over-consumption, which coincides and is caused from overpopulation. Issues like air and water pollution, global warming, resource depletion, and the biodiversity crisis are caused by overpopulation.... [tags: countries, issue, standards, living]

Negative Effects of Overpopulation on the Environment Essay
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau once said, “Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today” (“Population,” Internet). With the current statistics, Jacques could not be more accurate. Every second, 4.2 people are born and 1.8 people die, which would be a net gain of 2.4 people per second (“Population,” Internet). At this steady rate, the environmental health is spiraling downwards, and it is safe to assume humans are responsible for this. As the population increases, harmful effects on the land, water, and air also do.... [tags: environmental health, megacities, overpopulation]:: 6 Works Cited

Essay on The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation
- The human population has continued to grow through the decades. The increasingly large number of people that have become apart of the world population has become a major problem. The consequences of the world being over populated has numerous effects which include: Environmental effects, depletion of natural resources, effects on the economy, food and water instability, and mass species extinction. Without a solution to the rise in human population, by the year 2020, 8 billion people will live on earth and by the year 2050, 9 billion people will inhabit the planet.... [tags: Overpopulation, Environment]:: 4 Works Cited

Effects of Overpopulation and Industrialization on the Environment Essay
- Effects of Overpopulation and Industrialization on the Environment Throughout history, the world’s population has expanded in an extremely exponential fashion-- taking over three million years to achieve a one billion person benchmark, it then only took 130, 30, 15, 12, and 11 years to reach subsequent billions, respectively. (Southwick, 159) Such a massive and still increasing population, combined with the environmentally detrimental repercussions of industrialization (as a result of the need to sustain such a large population), namely pollution from fossil fuels, has begun to take a serious toll on our planet’s ecosystem.... [tags: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation]:: 4 Works Cited

The Effects of Population Increase on the Environment Essay
- The Effects of Population Increase on the Environment As inevitable as death and taxes, the population of the world will continue to grow until the government intervenes. The gross increase in population will generally lead to adverse effects on the environment. In the anthology, A Forest of Voices, an entry titled ?Is It Too Late?. by Anthony Weston deals with the history of legislation for the protection of the environment and stories of it?s destruction that are all too real. Seemingly, as the population increases, so should the level of intelligence for a sample population which would necessarily lead to a certain form of protection to the environment.... [tags: overpopulation]:: 2 Works Cited

Essay about The Damaging Impact of Overpopulation on the Environment
- The Damaging Impact of Overpopulation on the Environment 6.5 billion…This is not a whole lot of bacteria, but when it comes to humans, it is a very formidable number. The human population has been increasing at an extremely high rate in the last century and unfortunately, not much has been done to slow down this process. Undoubtedly, overpopulation is a global issue. It is global because it pertains to all of humanity, but global also means that it affects the whole world, i.e. the environment.... [tags: Exploratory Essays Research Papers]:: 1 Works Cited

Essay about Enviromnetal Degradation as a Result of Overpopulation
- Enviromnetal Degradation as a Result of Overpopulation Introduction There are simply too many people on our planet, and the population is not showing any signs of slowing down. This is having disastrous effects on our environment. There are too many implications and interrelationships to discuss in this paper, but the three substances that our earth consists of: land, water and air, are being destroyed. Our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate, bearing enormous impacts on the health of earth.... [tags: Environment Pollution Research Papers]:: 10 Works Cited

Essay about Overpopulation
- Overpopulation It is the world's one crime its babes grow dull, Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed. Not that they starve, but starve so dreamlessly, Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap, Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve, Not that they die but that they die like sheep. VACHEL LINDSAY No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind: And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.... [tags: Population Environment Environmental Papers]:: 18 Works Cited

Overpopulation Essay
- There are 6 billion human beings on the face of the Earth. According to our best estimates, there are somewhere between three and seven times more people than this planet can possibly maintain over a long period of time. Non-renewable resources are being used at an incredible rate, and we are destroying the capability of the planetary ecosystem to renew the supply of renewable resources. The worse however is yet to come. We need to realize the necessity of a population plan which will make our future more optimistic.... [tags: Earth´s Population]